Category Archives: deserts

This desert is so simple that it’s going to blow your vision about vegan cooking. Well, rather preparation than cooking 🙂

As you probably know by now, beside being a superfood, chia seeds are easy peasy to be used in the kitchen. When soaked in water, they create a mucilaginous mass in a matter of minutes. You can stir them from time to time and add more water if needed, but for the time being just leave them aside and focus on the avocado chocolate. Its delicious taste is obtained by the sole use of a few ingredients:

avocado

coconut milk/ fat

honey

cacao and/or carob

vanilla (optional)

Now mix the already set chia pudding with the chocolate and decorate it at your wish! Enjoy this simple raw desert as breakfast or a special treat with friends.

Take it as a promise: you will relish this cake! It’s not only mouth watering, but also fresh and tingly. Kinda everything you need for a hot summer day. Nevertheless, is fairly easy to prepare.

You can opt whether you’ll make it in one layer or two. Some time ago I use to put it under a chocolate layer, but now I prefer the simplicity of the cashew nuts. After soaking them, just add coconut oil, honey, fresh ginger & lemon juice to your taste. Use the immersion blender to mix everything together well.

It was a real test to keep the amazingly full-ripe (but not mushed) peaches un-devoured on the table for 3 full days. But it totally worth it! Chopped in tiny squares and rolled through a mix powder of ground cinnamon and ginger, they turned out just perfect for this desert.

All you have left to do now is sink the peaches (consider not pouring all the liquid) into the cashew cream, make it even and sprinkle pistachio nuts on top (or almond flakes). Keep it overnight in the freezer and 10minutes after it’s out you can serve it! Garnish with fresh slices of peaches – if you have any 🙂

When it comes to raw sweets, things can be either superfancy or superfast. It’s up to you. So unless you dream of a three layered cake that needs to stay in the freezer for a while, have a look at these deserts ideas:

– cashews are the best: they’re fat&creamy and need no more than 4hrs to soak. in the photo above they stand as the base for a cinnamon cacao desert (with star fruit on top)

– dates too! i love dates not only for their perfect sweetness, but also because of their texture – they give just about the right firmness to the composition

– in case you don’t have any of these two, you can improvise with oats or other grains (it won’t be raw though). just soak them for a bit, then add honey/dried fruits, tahina, grated coconut and of course, your favorite flavors. drop any high expectations about the looks – it’s basically porridge style

There’s one drink that can make your mornings resemble the kind of treat you’d get in a fancy cafe. Except it doesn’t have any caffeine or milk. Yet everybody flips out as if they were drinking cappuccino or milkshake. I think that’s why I’ve ended up calling it energy drink.

To begin with, you have to prepare the nut milk – it can be made from almonds, walnuts, cashews and so on. Use sesame seeds as one third of the whole nut quantity, so you can add up to the calcium intake for the day. After soaking the nuts, rinse them well and drop them into the blender with fresh water. When they start turning into a watery cream, strain it by pouring the entire composition through a nut milk bag. If necessary, fold in more water. You’ll be left with the milk and the leftover pulp, suitable to use in further deserts. Why not prepare 1-1,5l of nut milk, store it in the fridge and have it at your disposal over the next few days?

Once you get the milk done, start adding into the blender one or more of the following ingredients:

bananas

dates/ raisins/ figs or honey

coconut cream

rose water / orange blossom water

fruits tea or masala chai

carob / cacao

ground cinnamon / vanilla/ cloves, etc

any kind of berries (fresh or frozen) – in this case better not mix it with banana or dried fruits

ground flax or hemp seeds

You’ll get a pretty thick consistency, but you can always dilute it to your taste.

With this kind of quantity you’ll enjoy full energy until lunchtime or even later!

There’s one great thing about this desert: you can make it from whatever comes handy. All you need to have is some presoaked nuts and dried fruits, the rest is just improvisation!

I gathered some of my favorite ingredients along with a few tips of how to mix it:

– if you are in a bit of a rush and you don’t have any presoaked nuts, go for those that require less hydrating time (cashews – 4h; sunflower seeds – 2-3h) instead of the ‘time consuming’ ones (almonds or walnuts – roughly 8h)

– extra fat is not necessary, but welcomed; especially when you’re using just the pulp (which is already fat depleted) instead of the whole nuts. go for a bit of coconut oil, cream or butter or, if you fancy chocolate, cacao butter. even tahini works out pretty well.

– dates or figs are the best to go with, but you can also use raisins, dried cranberries or plums. don’t forget to take out the pits 🙂 soak them for half an hour and strain; if you have a high power food processor, you might not need to do this, but consider rinsing simply to have them safe and hygienic

– mix these two base ingredients in the food processor – you should have more nuts than dried fruits or else the composition will turn out too sweet

– grated coconut is necessary as you’ll need something to eat up all the water from the soaked ingredients. otherwise the composition will be too sloppy and you won’t be able to mold it into balls. alternatively, you can use psyllium husks, a good source of dietary fiber which helps in providing a good transit, or plain oats

– now you have to decide on the flavor: you can have choco mint balls or lemony balls, rose water balls or cardamom cinnamon balls, black or white, pink or orange, and so on. just use your imagination!

– always take into consideration that whatever ingredient you might add, the final texture should be doughy enough for you to shape the balls.

– you can make it crunchy by rolling the energy balls over a combination of grated coconut and sesame or poppy seeds. moreover, you can save some roasted nuts and add them either into the mixture or on the surface

Ever since I’ve encountered cashew I found it intriguingly soft and exotic. The best part of it is that you can easily turn it into a salty spread or a delicious desert. Either way, be generous with the lemon juice.

For this one I used fresh mint, garlic and salt. Put the hydrated nuts into the food processor, add the seasonings and mix well. I was inspired by the way my mother use to stuff the peppers with soft cheese and then slice it, but I have to admit the texture here is not firm enough as the cheese 🙂 Better serve it as a spread on any kind of peppers or leaves.

If you don’t have enough cashew, you can easily incorporate some grated coconut and carrot. Instead of fresh mint, use dry one or simply mint water . Just get rid of the garlic and you’ll get a pretty fancy spread. Serve it with pomegranate seeds and juice and you’ll have a winner for the dinner!